Brussels, 02/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The twelfth EU/Japan Summit, held in Athens on 1/2 May and attended by Junichiro Koizumi, Costas Simitis, Romano Prodi and Chris Patten, ended with the adoption of a joint statement focussing on international issues. On North Korea, both sides call on Pyongyang to quickly end its drive to develop nuclear weapons, doing so in a "visible, irreversible and verifiable" manner. The current situation on the Korean peninsula clearly has "serious implications" for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, and also has a destabilising effect globally. Both sides agree that the issue must be resolved diplomatically through "multilateral cooperation respecting international law and the interests of all parties in the region". On Iraq, both sides insist on the central role the UN must play in the process of stabilising and rebuilding the countries and coordinating humanitarian activity. The joint statement highlights the importance of an interim authority by the Iraqi people as soon as possible. The Middle East road map for the peace process should be rapidly implemented. On Sars, the EU and Japan are prepared to improve their sharing of information and tighten cooperation on all fronts to better combat the disease.
In terms of the economy, the EU and Japan pledged to liaise on the potential economic repercussions of the upcoming EU enlargement, acknowledging the need to strengthen bilateral cooperation in order to achieve a broad-based outcome in the WTO trade negotiations. The Summit also gave rise to a new initiative to increase mutual investment (Koizumi said he wanted to double the volume of foreign direct investment in Japan over the next five years). Both sides pledged to brief companies and investors of opportunities in the EU and Japan, and to promote joint activities likely to foster investments in both the EU and Japan. It was decided that the EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table should play a key role here.